Wall liner

ABSTRACT

Rolled T-beams of the kind used in suspended ceilings, act as vertical stiffeners in a wall liner for a back wall. The vertical stiffeners, reinforced from the back wall, keep the sheets of wallboard that form the wall liner vertically aligned and together. The weight of the wallboard liner is borne directly by the floor under the liner, without support by columns or studs.

This application is a continuation-in-part of prior application Ser. No. 11/985,690, filed Nov. 15, 2007, for Wall Liner.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention is in the field of vertical liners for a back wall, such as a foundation wall. A liner is formed of adjacent sheets of wallboard extending in a vertical plane in front of a back wall. Such a liner presents a pleasing appearance to a viewer, and also serves to insulate a space against temperature extremes, noise, and humidity.

2. Prior Art

a) Vertical Wall Liners

Prior art, vertical wall liners are formed by affixing sheets of wallboard to structural columns, or studs, of wood, or of metal having a U-shaped cross section with a leg of the U extending parallel to the plane of the wall. Nails, or screws, affix the sheets to the studs. Such studs, acting as columns, bear virtually all the weight of the wallboard, and are subject to twisting and buckling from such load, so that it is necessary that the columns have substantial resistance to the load imparted by the wallboard.

b) Suspended Horizontal Ceilings

A suspended, wallboard ceiling forms a horizontally extending liner for a structural ceiling. Such wallboard ceiling, also called a drywall ceiling, has sheets of wallboard attached by self-tapping screws to flanges of inverted rolled T-beams that are suspended from a structural ceiling by hang wires. The T-beams in a horizontal suspended drywall ceiling are united into a horizontal grid of main beams and cross beams, to provide stability to the beams, and to form a skeleton that totally supports the wallboard that is affixed to the grid by self-tapping screws inserted into the flanges of the T-beams. The entire weight of the wallboard is borne by the beams in the grid. Such prior art T-beams used in a horizontal suspended drywall ceiling grid are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,722,098 for Beam for Drywall Ceiling, incorporated herein by reference.

The prior art T-beams used in such drywall suspended ceilings are continuously formed by passing a web of sheet metal through a series of rollforming stations, as disclosed, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,055, for Process for Producing Rollformed Sections, incorporated herein as reference.

Such T-beams have a cross section of an inverted T shape, with a bulb at the top, a web depending downward from the bulb, and opposing flanges, extending horizontally from the web at the bottom thereof, as seen in the '098 patent. The beam design lends itself to ready insertion of the self-tapping screws into the flanges of the beams.

Such a T-beam used in a suspended ceiling is primarily subjected to a bending load downward from the weight of the wallboard, with virtually no compressive forces exerted longitudinally of the beam. Hence, the beam is so designed as to have virtually no resistance to act as a column, and readily buckles when subject to axial compression loads.

Although the entire weight of the wallboard is borne by such beams in the grid, the beams are required only to span the distance between the hang wire support wires, which generally are about two feet apart, so beams rolled of relatively light gauge metal, and of a height of less than b 1 3/4 inches, can be used.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention uses the above-described T-beams of the prior art as vertical stiffeners for wallboard sheets that form a vertical wall liner, so that the wallboard can stand vertically alone. Even though such a T-beam has virtually no strength as a column, the invention enables such a beam to satisfactorily reinforce wallboard formed into a liner, so the wallboard can stand alone to form the wall. Wallboard sheets, generally formed of gypsum between outer paper layers, are relatively fragile, and fracture or buckle easily when subject to bending. In using a T-beam as a stiffener member affixed to the wallboard and attached to a back wall, the web of the beam is kept aligned by the bulb of the T-beam and the flanges, so that any bending forces impacted by or against the wallboard, are resisted by the web of the beam.

In one embodiment of the invention, the T-beams are joined by horizontal struts that extend through the T-beam vertical stiffeners, and are braced from the back wall, which can be a structural or partition wall. The flanges of the T-beam vertical stiffeners are secured to the wallboard sheets with self-tapping screws, as disclosed in the '098 patent.

In another embodiment of the invention, the horizontal struts are not used. The T-beam vertical stiffeners act individually on the wallboard to keep the wallboard vertically erect without buckling. The T-beam vertical stiffeners are not tied together by a strut, but rather, as vertical stiffeners, act individually to keep the wallboard sheets vertically aligned in the plane of the wall.

Individual T-beam vertical stiffeners are tied into the back wall with an L-shaped bracket adjustable to compensate for a back wall that may have a varying surface contour. These brackets primarily tie the wall liner horizontally to the back wall through the T-beam vertical stiffeners, without vertically supporting the wall, since the liner is primarily self-supporting vertically, provided the wall remains straight, and does not buckle. The brackets may be placed on the T-beam vertical stiffeners at varying vertical heights, and generally concentrated where best suited to tie the wall liner to the back wall.

In both embodiments of the invention, the wallboard itself, reinforced by the T-beams acting as vertical stiffeners, forms a self supporting wall.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

FIGS. 1 through 7A are directed to a first embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the first embodiment of the invention, with elements, including most of the wallboard, broken away.

FIG. 1A is a perspective view, similar to FIG. 1, with portions of sheets of wallboard in place.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2-2 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a front plan view of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2 before the T-beams, acting as vertical stiffeners, are attached to the wallboard sheets.

FIG. 4 is a partial perspective view, with elements broken away, to show a rolled T-beam vertical stiffener attached to a wallboard sheet, and to a bottom track.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 1, showing a T-beam vertical stiffener supported in a bottom track.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 1 showing the T-beam vertical stiffeners, positioned against a structural wall.

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 2, taken on the line 7-7 in FIG. 6, showing the T-beam vertical stiffeners, extending along the structural wall.

FIG. 7A is an enlarged view of the circled area in FIG. 7.

FIGS. 8 through 12 are directed to the second embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view, similar to FIG. 1, showing the second embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a bracket of the invention secured to the back wall and to the bulb of a T-beam vertical stiffener.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view showing a bracket of the invention used to compensate for a varying contour in a back wall.

FIG. 11 is an enlarged sectional view of a bracket of the invention, similar to (d) in FIG. 10, taken on the line 11-11 of FIG. 9.

FIG. 12 is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line 12-12 of FIG. 9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Wall liner 10 is intended to stand in front of a vertical back wall 20 between an upper ceiling 21 and a lower floor 22, as seen in FIGS. 1, 6, and 8.

The back wall 20 may be a structural wall, above or below ground level, of, for instance, poured concrete or concrete block, or back wall 20 may be any other form of wall, such as a partition wall.

Wall liner 10 has a front face of wallboard, also known as drywall sheets 33 that extend vertically from floor 22 to ceiling 21.

Prior art wall liners are generally built with stand-alone wood, or U-shaped metal channels, that act as columns, or studs. With wood of rectangular cross section, the greater length of the section, and with channels, the base of the U, extends perpendicularly to the plane of the wall liner 10. In the prior art, the sheets 33 of wallboard are attached to the columns, or studs, by nails or screws. The columns, or studs, stand vertically alone, unattached to the back wall. The columns, or studs, are stiff and rigid enough, by virtue of the thickness of the wood stud, or, of the U cross section of metal stud, which is formed of relatively thick metal, to withstand the vertical forces imparted to the studs by the weight of the wallboard sheets, as well as horizontal forces that impact against the liner. Such columns, or studs, can also withstand the forces exerted when the nails or screws holding the wallboard are being secured to the stud.

In effect, a prior art wall liner is a separate stand-alone wall built in front of a back wall, with wallboard sheets secured to vertically extending structural columns, or studs, that support the sheets.

In the present invention, prior art T-beams of the type disclosed in the '098 patent, for suspended ceilings, are used not as horizontal beams that carry the weight of the wallboard forming a horizontal suspended ceiling, but rather are used as vertical stiffeners attached to, and bracketed from, a back wall, in a vertical wall liner.

In a wall liner 10 using such T-beam vertical stiffeners 23, the weight of the wall liner 10 rests primarily on the floor 22 under the wall. The function of the T-beam vertical stiffener 23 of the invention is to keep the sheets of wallboard 33 in the wall liner 10 vertically erect without buckling. The T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 also tie the sheets of vertically extending wallboard 33 together at their vertical edges, with self-tapping screws 32, and reinforce the vertically extending wallboard sheets 33 against horizontal forces.

A T-beam vertical stiffener 23 is tied to the back wall 20 for horizontal support.

Although such a T-beam vertical stiffener 23 is much lighter per length than a comparable length of prior art stud, such as a U-channel section, and although much more subject to buckling than a stud when acting as a column, such a T-beam vertical stiffener 23, when secured to the structural wall, is adequate to stiffen the wallboard to form a suitable wall liner 10.

The present invention involves the new use of a prior art rolled T-beam, as a vertical stiffener 23 in a wall liner 10.

The T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 are formed by passing an endless strip of sheet metal successively through rolling stations that fold the strip into a cross section having a bulb 25, a web 26 depending from the bulb 25, and a pair of flanges 27 extending oppositely from web 26.

The flanges 27 generally have indentations 31 that capture a self-tapping screw 32 which passes through a wallboard sheet 33 to secure the wallboard sheet 33 to the flanges 27 of the T-beam. Such indentations are disclosed in the '098 patent, as used in horizontal suspended ceilings.

The T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 are positioned close to back wall 20 as seen in FIGS. 2 and 8, or against the back wall 20, as seen in FIG. 7. The T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 are anchored at the bottom in floor track 35, and the top in ceiling track 36.

The tracks 35 and 36 are formed of a U-shaped channel of sheet metal having in cross section, a shorter arm 37 and a longer arm 38, and a base 40. The base 40 is secured at 39 to the floor 22 and at 44 to the ceiling 21 along the back wall 20, and the T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 are locked into the tracks 35 and 36 by means of locking tabs 41 that are spaced, as seen particularly in FIG. 5, to capture the bulb 25 of T-beam vertical stiffener 23 in arm 38, and the flanges 27 in arm 37. The tabs 41 are pierced from the arms 37 and 38, and have sloping sides that permit the T-beam vertical stiffener 23 to be maneuvered and locked into place in the tracks 35 and 36.

The tabs 41 are placed along the tracks 35 and 36 to provide suitable spacing, for instance, 16 inches between the T-beam vertical stiffener 23 centers. The tabs 41 on the top 36 and bottom 35 tracks are in vertical registry with each other.

The T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 during insertion into the tracks 35 and 36, engage the sloping sides of the locking tabs 41 of the tracks 35 and 36 and flex the arms 37 and 38 of the tracks 35 and 36 outward to permit the T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 to be forced into place.

In the first embodiment of the invention disclosed herein, the T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 have openings 42 spaced vertically in the webs 26. The openings 42 have a larger upper portion 45, which is roughly rectangular, and a smaller bottom portion 46, which is U-shaped.

A strut 50 having a U-shaped cross section corresponding to the shape of the lower portion 46 of opening 42, that has been maneuvered through the larger opening 45, engages the bottom portion 46 in a force fit, as shown particularly in FIGS. 2, 7 and 7A. The struts 50 may be spliced together longitudinally with a splice plate 51, using pre-tapped holes in the strut 50 and plate 51.

The strut 50, which in the embodiment shown, has a cross section of an inverted U, reinforces each of the T-beam vertical stiffeners 23, from back wall 20.

Angle shaped brackets 57, spaced along strut 50, are anchored into back wall 20 with suitable fasteners, such as hardened nails 61, and are secured to strut 50 by screws 62. The brackets 57 may have a relatively long arm 63, such as seen in FIG. 2, where the wall liner 10 is set away from the back wall 20, or may have a shortened arm 64, as seen in FIG. 7 and 7A, where the wall liner 10 is against the back wall 20.

In the second embodiment of the invention disclosed herein, struts 50 are not used, so that the T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 are not tied together, except at the top track 36 and bottom track 35, where they engage the tracks. Brackets 70 tie an individual T-beam vertical stiffener 23 to the structural wall 20 in back of the wall liner 10, at any desired vertical location on the T-beam vertical stiffener 23. The bracket 70 is L-shaped and has a first longer leg 71 and a second shorter leg 72.

An example of leg length may be 4% inches for the longer leg 71, and 1½ inches for the shorter leg 72. The legs 71 and 72 have holes 75 spaced in the legs at desired locations which provide for adjustability of the bracket 70. Where a structural back wall 20 varies in contour, a bracket 70 is adjusted to provide a solid connection between the structural back wall 20, and the T-beam vertical stiffener 23.

Examples of such adjustability are shown in FIG. 8, where in views (a) and (b), the shorter leg 72 extends from the wall 20, whereas in views (c) and (d), the longer leg 71 extends from the wall 20.

As seen in FIGS. 8 through 12, self-tapping screws 74 are used to attach the bracket 70 to the bulbs 25 of the T-beam vertical stiffener 23, as shown. The bracket 70 is secured to the structural wall 20, for instance, by hardened nails 77 driven into the wall 20, or by self-tapping screws 78.

The bracket 70 of the second embodiment of the disclosed invention provides numerous adjustments, as shown, to tie the individual T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 to the back wall 20, while maintaining the flanges 27 of the T-beam vertical stiffener 23 in a flat vertical plane, so that the surface of the attached wallboard 33 also extends in a vertical plane.

The brackets 70 can be readily attached to the T-beam vertical stiffeners 23 and the structural wall 20 from in front of the T-beam vertical stiffeners 23, before sheets of wallboard 33 are attached to the T-beam vertical stiffeners 23.

The wall liner 10 is completed by securing the wallboard sheets 33 to the T-beam vertical stiffeners 23. The wallboard sheets 33 register with the T-beams 23 at the vertical edges 80 of a sheet 33, as shown in FIG. 1A.

The sheets 33 are secured to the flanges 27 of the T-beam vertical stiffener 23, at the edges 80 of sheet 33, as well as optionally within the sheet 33 as at 81, with self-tapping screws 32, which enter indents 31, where they pierce and are screwed into a flange 27 of T-beam vertical stiffener 23, as seen in the '098 patent.

The T-beam vertical stiffeners 23, anchored at the bottom and top in tracks 35, 36, and braced against wall 20 by brackets 57 as disclosed in the first embodiment, or by brackets 70, as disclosed in the second embodiment of the invention, primarily keep the wallboard sheets 33 of the wall liner 10 vertically aligned, without buckling, with substantially all the weight of the wallboard 33 borne directly by the floor under the liner, rather than indirectly through studs, as in prior art liners.

Whereas the function of the prior art studs was to carry the weight of the wallboard sheets, in the present invention, the function of a T-beam 23 is to act as a vertical stiffener to keep the sheets 33 aligned and together. By tying T-beam vertical stiffeners to the back wall 20, the T-beam stiffeners 23 also serve to resist horizontal forces exerted against the wall liner 10, such as by bumps, or by matter resting against the wall. 

1. In a method of constructing a vertical wall liner formed of sheets of wallboard (33), in front of a back wall (20), the improvement comprising using prior art rolled T-beams having a cross section with a) a bulb (25), b) a web (26) extending from the bulb, and c) flanges (27) extending laterally from the bulb (25), as vertical stiffeners on the wall liner (10) that a) keep the wallboard (33) of the wall liner (10) vertically aligned, and b) reinforce the wall liner (10) horizontally, to prevent buckling, with the T-beam vertical stiffeners reinforced by brackets secured to the back wall.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the T-beam vertical stiffeners (23) are spaced and secured in an upper (36) and a lower (35) track, and the sheets of wallboard (33) are then attached to the flanges (27) of the T-beam vertical stiffeners (23) with self-tapping screws (32).
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the T-beam vertical stiffeners (23) are reinforced from the back wall (20) by struts (50) that extend through the T-beam vertical stiffeners (23), and are tied to the back wall (20).
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the T-beam vertical stiffeners (23) are reinforced from the back wall (20) by brackets (57,70).
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the brackets (57,70) are adjusted to compensate for variations in the contour of the back wall (20).
 6. In a vertical wall liner formed of sheets of wallboard (33), extending in front of a back wall (20), the improvement comprising prior art rolled T-beams having a cross section with a) a bulb (25), b) a web (26) extending from the bulb, and c) flanges (27) extending laterally from the bulb (25), that form vertical stiffeners on the wall liner (10) that a) keep the wallboard (33) of the wall liner (10) vertically aligned, and b) reinforce the wall liner (10) horizontally, to prevent buckling, with the T-beam vertical stiffeners reinforced by brackets secured to the back wall.
 7. The wall liner of claim 6, wherein the T-beam vertical stiffeners (23) are spaced and secured in an upper (36) and a lower (35) track, and the sheets of wallboard (33) are attached to the flanges (27) of the T-beam vertical stiffeners (23) with self-tapping screws (32).
 8. The wall liner of claim 6 wherein the T-beam vertical stiffeners (23) are reinforced from the back wall (20) by struts (50) that extend through the T-beam vertical stiffeners (23), and are tied to the back wall (20).
 9. The wall liner of claim 6 wherein the T-beam vertical stiffeners (23) are reinforced from the back wall (20) by brackets (57,70).
 10. The wall liner of claim 9 wherein the brackets (57,70) are adjustable to compensate for variations in the contour of the back wall (20). 